There’s one thing I never was told about in the classroom: In PR, you do a lot of research. I would estimate that currently 80 percent of my time is spent on research. It seems that every single thing I do require some amount of research, whether I am writing a pitch, working on a social media project or creating a report.

Here are four tips to help with research:

1. Use a variety of different keywords.
2. Consider searching on different search engines for blogs, including Technorati, Ice Rocket and Google Blogs.
3. If you want to know what people are talking about, search on Twitter. People will be sharing links and information related to the subject.
4. Try searching on delicious. A real person bookmarked the links, so it might give you different results. (This is a tip Lara Kretler gave me.)

What are your tips for doing research?

Rachel M. Esterline works as an account executive for Central Michigan Life, the nationally award-winning school newspaper at Central Michigan University. She is as an account executive for PR Central, CMU’s student-run public relations firm and as a public relations executive with the Student Government Association. Additionally, Rachel serves on the executive board of the Public Relations Student Society of America at CMU and has completed a seven-month internship with her university’s public relations and marketing department. Rachel will graduate in May 2010 with a degree in public relations with minors in journalism and communication.

This post is a part of PRofessional Development Week. The posts from March 2 to March 6 will focus on the development of professional skills of public relations students. If you would like to contribute to this special week on A Step Ahead, e-mail Rachel.M.Esterline {at} Gmail.com.

Renee Walker, the associate vice president of public relations and marketing at Central Michigan University, shared this quote with us at the CMU-FSU PRSSA Regional Activity:

Don’t let the fear of falling keep you from knowing the joy of flight.

— Lane Wallace

Here are three ways to help launch and manage your career that I learned from Renee:

1. Create a list of “must haves,” “deal breakers,” “professional goals” and “personal goals.”
   To help you evaluate whether or not your career is going in the right direction, Renee suggested creating a list. For example, one of my “must haves” is a job that challenges me. If it is too easy, I won’t be learning much. A “deal breaker” is a job that requires me to fetch coffee. I believe in paying my dues, but I don’t want my position of intern to be taken advantage of.
2. Identify your talents and experience gaps.
   By identifying your talents, you can better promote yourself. And, by identifying your experience gaps, you can find ways to gain the experience you need. My talents include social media and writing for publications. But, I don’t have a lot of experience in media relations. In order to close the experience gap, I should work on gaining experience in media relations in order to advance my career.
3. Establish stretch goals.
   Since working with Renee when I was an intern in her office, I have realized she believes in pushing yourself to reach higher goals. She calls these “stretch goals.” She said it is OK if you don’t always reach your stretch goals, but you can never reach them if you don’t try. This is where her favorite quote, at the top of this post, comes in.

Rachel M. Esterline works as an account executive for Central Michigan Life, the nationally award-winning school newspaper at Central Michigan University. She is as an account executive for PR Central, CMU’s student-run public relations firm and as a public relations executive with the Student Government Association. Additionally, Rachel serves on the executive board of the Public Relations Student Society of America at CMU and has completed a seven-month internship with her university’s public relations and marketing department. Rachel will graduate in May 2010 with a degree in public relations with minors in journalism and communication.

Constructive criticism can help you develop something good into something great.

Feel free to tell me, “You’re doing it all wrong!” Then, I can fix it.

But, how can you give and receive criticism without it being taken the wrong way? It’s not always easy.

A friend recently gave me a piece of criticism. After mulling it over, I could see her angle. I also could see several other angles coming into play.

I’ve been more aware of what I’ve been doing lately because of her criticism (which could be seen more as a piece of advice). PickTheBrain had a lot of great advice on taking criticism. I think one of the best points made was to ask what you can do better.

You can help others with constructive criticism.

I recently critiqued a resume and writing sample for a PRSSA member at another chapter. I enjoy helping others when I can. PickTheBrain also has advice on the art of giving criticism.

The best thing you can do when giving criticism is tell the person exactly how they can improve.

Don’t say: “You need to rework your resume.”
Say: “Your bullet points need work. I would suggest developing them into measurable accomplishments rather than just job duties.”

Don’t say: “This press release needs work.”
Say: “I think it would be better if you focused your lead on this aspect. Then lead into the next paragraph with more information.”

So don’t tell me I’m doing things wrong. Instead, tell me how I can improve.

Rachel M. Esterline works as an account executive for Central Michigan Life, the nationally award-winning school newspaper at Central Michigan University. She is as an account executive for PR Central, CMU’s student-run public relations firm and as a public relations executive with the Student Government Association. Additionally, Rachel serves on the executive board of the Public Relations Student Society of America at CMU and has completed a seven-month internship with her university’s public relations and marketing department. Rachel will graduate in May 2010 with a degree in public relations with minors in journalism and communication.

Jacob Share on the Personal Branding Blog shared some great tips on using avatars for branding.

First of all, if you don’t have an avatar, get one! I went to http://en.gravatar.com/ to get one for my blog posts.

These are really important for branding yourself. You can use them for your Twitter, your social networks (like Brazen Careerist) and they also show up when you reply to blog posts.

I recently edited a photo to be use as my avatar. It comes out fairly recognizable even as a small image. The extremely small image is hard to see well, but you would recognize it if you had seen it around before. 

One thing I did with this avatar was completely edited out the background. This causes all of the focus to be on me. Since my hair was a shade different during the summer when the picture was taken, I changed the picture to black and white. I think back and white is very classy looking.

Your picture should portray how you want to be perceived. I wanted to look professional, but not still and unhappy like some professional pictures I have seen.

I created this avatar in a basic photo program called PhotoDraw. It was quick and easy and helps create a consistent look for my personal brand.

Rachel M. Esterline works as an account executive for Central Michigan Life, the nationally award-winning school newspaper at Central Michigan University. She is as an account executive for PR Central, CMU’s student-run public relations firm and as a public relations executive with the Student Government Association. Additionally, Rachel serves on the executive board of the Public Relations Student Society of America at CMU and has completed a seven-month internship with her university’s public relations and marketing department. Rachel will graduate in May 2010 with a degree in public relations with minors in journalism and communication.